Spain’s Rafael Nadal said on Monday that the two weeks of Roland Garros had been “magic”, when attending a sponsor’s event in Paris the day after winning his 10th French Open title.

Nadal arrived at a Nike shop on Paris’ famous Champs Elysees Avenue just after having posed with his trophy on a barge cruising the Seine River in the French capital, to the delight of a crowd of international fans.

“I’m just very happy, super happy about what happened here. It has been a magic two weeks for me, I enjoyed it a lot and I felt the love of the people here at Roland Garros and that means a lot for me too because it’s the most important event in my career so I feel all the support of the crowd and all the people from Roland Garros for me have been very very emotional. And in the future, let’s see, I’m going to keep working hard to try to keep having chances,” Nadal said.

Claycourt king Rafa was taken into the shop to set his handprints, before being interviewed and signing the shirts of a group of young children present to ask him questions.

Nadal regained his Roland Garros throne after two years in exile with a brutal 6-2 6-3 6-1 mauling of Swiss Stan Wawrinka to complete ‘La Decima’ on Sunday (June 11).

This title, a record 10th at a single grand slam in the professional era, was arguably the most impressive of his 15 majors, though, as it arrived three injury-plagued years after the last one when he beat Novak Djokovic in 2014.

“This one is number 10 (10th win of French Open), that is an important number,” the Spaniard said.

I really had some tough moments during the last couple of years with injuries so being back playing at my best, I did it since the beginning of this season but playing at this level at the most important event of the year for me, you know, means a lot, so I’m very very happy.”

The fourth seed, who has only lost two matches at Roland Garros since his debut in 2005, is now just one short of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 11 titles at a single grand slam.

Reuters